Moana, and her non-boyfriend, Maui
Moana, an ancient Polynesian tale of empowerment and discovering your own identity, plays on a well-worn storyline with some small but significant differences. Moana is the daughter of the island chief, and due to inherit leadership upon coming of age. When her island is dying because of an ancient curse, she alone sails out on a quest to save the day.
She is aided by demi-god Maui, who, although male, is emphatically not a love interest. Because, as Hollywood is starting to realise, when a girl is saving the world, she doesn’t need to fall in love with every man that walks onto screen. Axing the romance plotline is a significant step for Disney scriptwriters. Up until Moana, a marriage, or at least a romance, was mandatory for Disney Princesses.
Breathing air and finding love: mandatory Disney plot-points
It was only 1989 when young girls were taught to prioritise beauty over brains as “it’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man”. This has slowly shifted, in Tangled the marriage is implied, not a major plot point, and in Frozen, true love is sisterly, not romantic. This is in stark contrast with Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid, where the narrative revolves around the attainment of ‘true love’ and in turn, a husband.
In an essay entitled Child Maltreatment in Disney Animated Feature Films an interesting character trend was found. It noted that the girls are more often shown asserting themselves against parents (as in The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Aladdin, Tangled, etc) than princes. It seems the narratives are keen to tap into typical teenage angst, but as soon as these girls enter womanhood, they are resigned to subservience in their marriage.
The impact of social context on the princesses’ characters
The plot direction of these Disney movies is also reflective of the personal characteristics and traits embodied by these women. The first three Disney Princess movies, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, were made from the 1930s to 1950s. It’s therefore no surprise they personify the traditional housewife stereotype, propagated by the domestic containment theory of the 50s. These women are obedient, taciturn, lack initiative and thrive on housework.
Diversity, finally! Is it too good to be true?
By 2016 we’ve had movie princesses that are Arabian, Native American, Chinese, African-American, Scottish and Polynesian, with a Latino princess on Disney Junior TV.
The representations have been by no means perfect. It seems that every attempt by Disney to explore a non-Anglo-Saxon culture comes with a large list of cultural and historical inaccuracies that propagate offensive stereotypes. For example, historians have long been irritated by the reappropriation of the story of Pocahontas (who was actually twelve years old) and Mulan.
Aladdin, set in approximately 9th century CE, features extremely revealing, sexualised clothing in comparison with cultural norms (not to mention a slew of racist stereotypes about Arabians). With a company as large as Disney, criticism, and pedantic scrutiny of historicity and political correctness, is inevitable. The validity of these many critiques varies, yet it is interesting to note.
Recently, The Princess and the Frog, although noteworthy for the first black princess, got criticised for everything from the insensitive setting, racist character names, and non-black prince. Some race scholars even aired the interesting observation that housework and cleaning, not done by Disney Princesses since Sleeping Beauty, makes a resurgence with the first black princess.
Moana, in cinemas now, has admirably strived for historical accuracy with directors Musker and Clements recruiting a group of cultural advisors known as the ‘Oceanic Trust’. This consisted of “a group of anthropologists, cultural practitioners, historians, linguists, and choreographers from islands including Samoa, Tahiti, Mo’orea, and Fiji” who were rigorous in their critique of Moana. The majority of the cast is of pacific-islander descent, the story is rooted in pacific mythology and features songs written by Samoan musician Opetaia Foa’I and sung in Polynesian by the Te Vaka group.
Not just a stick figure: the changing female form
Moana’s physical appearance reflects a small but positive step in Disney promoting more variation in the body shapes of their princesses. Moana, unlike the wafer-thin Frozen princesses, has strong legs with curves because, like Mulan, she’s on a quest of physical endurance. Co-Director Musker said “We wanted this action adventure heroine… that could really believably carry all that stuff… and take charge and command a boat across the ocean. That she wouldn’t be knocked over in those mighty oceanic breezes.”
This shift in perceptions of beauty is important, as for a long time Disney films encouraged the ideal that overweight people are ugly, unmarried and hostile. Think of Ursula from The Little Mermaid, the mean matchmaker in Mulan, the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas. Sure, there are some body-positive characters, but they’re never worthy of main character status.
With Lily James’ controversially tiny waist in the recent live action Cinderella, and the subsequent casting of the slim Emma Watson for 2017’s Beauty and the Beast remake, it seems unlikely that this trend is changing rapidly.
What next?
So where is Disney Princess heading to from here? With the commercial success of live-action remakes Cinderella and The Jungle Book, Disney has already signed off on remakes of Mulan and The Little Mermaid, with Beauty and the Beast hitting cinemas March 23rd. On a non-princess note, other live action remakes/spin-offs coming include The Lion King, 101 Dalmatians and Mary Poppins Returns.
The co-directors of Moana have stated that an LGBT princess could be on the cards in the future, but given the eighteen remakes planned in the next few years, it’s unlikely to be coming any time soon.
Conclusion
For generations, Disney films have forged childhood memories, and implicitly and explicitly taught everyone- children and adults alike- how to live. Their exponential financial success means that for years to come, they will continue evolving their idea of ideal human relationships. Soon, we can look forward to our favourite movies reflecting the tangled complexities of human nature- regardless of gender, race or sexuality.
Which Disney Princess do you think has been the best role model, and why?
Scribbles of Stage and Screen 
this is amazing and so insightful! and yaaaaas Disney’s effort to be more inclusive makes me so happy. and i would be overjoyed if they achieved more diversity in sexuality…
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True. although i think they should be careful not to make it feel to forced just because everyone is asking for it (eg frozen 2). I want it to fit into the storyline not feel like a bad add on
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This was an interesting post. I particularly enjoy it when female characters are represented simply because they are interesting as well as essential to the telling of a story. I’m not impressed with creating female characters to fill quotas or avoid criticism because this is a shallow approach which often falls short of portraying women with any real insight. Tokenism of that kind seems to me to be a way of offering less so that more will not be expected.
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This is such a brilliant article so many good points and yes I agree that Disney needs to change – Moana was amazing but I think Frozen was terrible.
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Agreed! I thought Frozen was ok but not something that needs a re-visit whereas Moana was just a happy, feel-good flik
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Very insightful.
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I just hope Disney doesn’t buy DC. They already have Marvel. I know this comment wasn’t princess related but it is Disney related. That and Moana was awesome! It kind of reminded me of the movie Brave. I don’t know why.
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I didn’t realise they owned Marvel- I’m not a big superhero fan. It’s easy to see why they seem similar- young girl from ‘exotic’ country rebels from family, goes on quest etc etc. Thanks for the follow!
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Love this article, very honest and insightful indeed! Would you be interested in sharing this with our readers on moviepilot.com? We’d love to promote it!
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Thanks! I’m glad you like it. I would be interested- how would that work?
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It would require you to make an account on our open platform (creators.co) and publishing the article there. After that we would curate it to Movie Pilot as well as some of the MP Facebook pages. That’s all of it in a nutshell, if you like you can send me an email and I can go into more detail.
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Such good insight here! I think Belle really is the best role model, since she respects her father, is smart and educated, and shows courage and self-sacrifice. She does fall in love, but that’s not a bad thing!
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Thanks for your thoughts. My favourite has always been Mulan, because she behaves in a way that, up until that Disney film, was exclusively ‘male’ territory.
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Very well done, JOBRADLEY. Our media both reflects us and influences us. It’s what courageous art does – shows us ourselves and asks if we like what we see. However, commercial art gives us what we want/ what we will pay for. That perpetuates customs and norms without examining them. — this is true in so many realms these days. Thank you for your good work on this.
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I’m glad you liked the article
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This was a great read. Very thought-provoking. I agree, it’s a nice change and step up from the classic Disney movies where it felt like it was the necessity for the princesses to have to marry so they can ‘live happily ever after’. The new character ideas seem more refreshing to watch and adds a lot of depth to their character.
P.s Thank you for visiting my side of the world and following. ☺
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